Nations Championship launched as rugby offers more purpose to test schedule

It comes three years after the competition was first mooted to replace the traditional mid-year tours.

DUE SOUTH: Andrew Porter's Ireland will face a daunting southern hemisphere swing next summer. Pic: INPHO/Nick Elliott

Rugby's new-look Nations Championship was launched Monday with northern and southern hemisphere countries pitted against each other in two separate windows in July and November next year before a weekend of finals matches in London.

The long-anticipated announcement has come three years after the competition was first mooted to replace the traditional mid-year tours that northern hemisphere teams make to countries in the south and then the other way round in November.